He is the sun of Girgis Simaan Simaan and Hanni Hanna
Talj. He was born in Mieh w Mieh, 14th of July 1924. He was
the older of his brothers and sisters, Souad, Bahij and Fouad.

He was talented since his childhood in painting and
sculpturing, where he used to visit the prairies in Mieh w Mieh, watch,
contemplate, and dream, looking and searching for small pieces of rocks
and stones, worked on them with his small knife, forming a bird, or
other small animals, colouring it by colours extracted from the beauty
of the nature in Mieh w Mieh.

He
studied in Mieh w Mieh elementary school by teachers such as Boutros
Wakim and Michael Simaan. In his youthful age, he moved to Beirut and
studied in the Lebanese Art Academy, which was owned by Mr. Alexi
Boutros. There he studied painting and sculpturing under the supervision
of a Hungarian teacher, Mr. Georges Gash, and the Italian teacher
Manati. He mastered sculpture art, and became famous in the academy,
where his teacher Mr. Gash told him one day:

In
the future, you will become a great artist, and in case you will study
in Europe, do not come back to Lebanon, because in Lebanon, artists arte
not well recognized or appreciated.

Besides his concentration on painting and sculpturing, Rashid studied
and read for great poets and artists, such as Gibran Khalil Gibran,
Michael Angelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.

In
1956, with the help of his Italian friend engineer Piradzi, Rashid got a
scholarship from Italy, thus he went to Rome, and joined the Superior
Art academy for 5 years, where he graduated with honours. He contributed
in several art conventions in Europe, and was well recognized and
designated for his work. In a New York art convention, he got the first
prize for his art work sculpture named “Lovers”.

While
in Italy, Rashid knew a European girl named “Marian Orasko”, and he was
in love with her, and he gave her as a gift his greatest famous work,
the “Lovers” sculpture. Marian took the sculpture, and put it in the
middle of her home in Lozan, Switzerland.

Rashid came back to Lebanon in 1960, where he wanted to serve his
country by teaching the art in the Lebanese academy for fine arts, but
the dean of the university refused to allow that, because Rashid did not
have the necessary channels, or as we say in Arabic: “Wasta”. Because of
that, believing in his talent and not being appreciated, Rashid was very
upset and shocked by the dean behaviour.

So
Rashid came back to his home town Mieh w Mieh, where he enjoyed the
nature, the trees, the village, and he started to work on his own,
making a lot of great art works.

In
1984, the war destroyed all his work, his sculptures, paintings, and
displaced him along with all Mieh w Mieh residents. All his dreams were
destroyed once again, so he lived displaced, sad and poor, in a country
that does not have any values for such genius.

Rashid died in March 21st, 1988, in a village called
Kafarhouna, in Jizzine area, and he was buried there next to his mother,
away from his village, and a stranger in his own country.

Besides the sculpture art, Rashid also mastered painting, and writing
poems, where he wrote a lot of poems, but unfortunately were lost during
the war. He also contributed to several conventions in Europe and the
USA, as well as in Lebanon, in the Onesko Palace, Carlton Hotel, and
Sursok museum and gardens. Lot of his sculpture are still in several
governmental places, and Lebanese houses, streets, and towns, such as
Maarouf Saad sculpture in the city of Saida, and a sculpture for
Egyptian president Jamal Abdel Naser in the village of Barja, and the
sculpture of “The Mother” and the “The Thailandian Lady” in Rome.

More
than 60 gorgeous sculptures were designed and prepared by Rashid, but
because of the war, no one knows where those sculptures are. Rashid,
this child hearted great artist, has suffered a lot. In several
occasions, he felt stranger in his country.

This
artist that mastered love in his art and poetry, was missing the love of
his own country for him, because he was honest, and did not know how to
lie and cheat, in order to get and reach higher positions.

Story
edited by Dr. Mounif Moussa, and was taken out of the Mieh w Mieh
magazine “Olive Branches”, dated December 25, 2000.